Friday, April 28, 2006

Here's How and Where to Start your Online Business (Part 1)

Copyright © 2006 Penny Shellswell http://www.LotsMoreComingIn.com

Are you excited at the prospect of an online business? Do you find yourself asking: Is it possible to earn a living online? Can I do it?

Well, be encouraged. You can earn a living, an incredibly good one, and yes, you can do it. Anyone can do it.

Whether you are in employment looking to supplement your income or fire the boss, or whether you are retired and looking to provide a pension, or whether you are a teenager still at college wanting to make it big, then an online business could be your answer.

The great thing about the internet is that you do not need any high flying qualifications.

So where do you start?

You need a product and a website. Let's start with the product.

You need something to sell. Something you are passionate about or that you can become passionate about. You might have a passion for wigwams or snails but your target market is going to be rather small! Decide on something that appeals to a wide range of people.

It can be a service, information or product.

Service Product

A service is where you might choose to sell your expertise through online consultancy, telephone or email.

A key factor, though, in this type of business is that you are limited by the hours in a day that you can commit. As your business expands, a lot will depend on how much you can fit into the hours you have available every day. What would you do if 1 million people replied to your advertising?

Many people, therefore, with a service to offer, often combine it with information in the form of e~books. (An e~book is a book in electronic format that can be downloaded by the customer directly to their computer on payment via a secure system).

So if, for example, you are a Life Coach, you would write your own e~books and e~courses that could be sold on line and you could offer an online consultancy as a back up perhaps. This leads into an area of great significance.

Information Products

Information products are hugely profitable. Everyone is looking for information. If you had a passion for natural health products, you could write your own information e~books and advertise them on your site.

Other Products
So what if you don't have your own product? Then Affiliate Programs could be your answer. Put simply, get paid for marketing somebody else's product. Broadly you have two choices: drop shipping or referral marketing.

Drop Shipping

This is where, via your website, you take the order and shipping details, and receive the money at the retail price. You then place the order with the producer/wholesaler and pay at the wholesale price. He in turn ships the product to your customer.

All this is great. However, there is a 'personal availability' commitment to your business involved. This can become time consuming as you necessarily become involved with aspects such as servicing returns and refunds with the attendant documentation.

To be continued...

Copyright © 2006 Penny Shellswell
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To find the best home based business ideas and
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